My friend Janene made me laugh today when she posted that e-card. This is one of the little joys of army life. :)
I have to remind myself that not everyone would understand why this is such an issue. There are days I wake up and think to myself, "What is the zip code here again?" Yesterday that happened to me at the gas station.
Right after we move to a new place, I'm always a little afraid to even try to get gas...I know the pump will ask me for my zip code if I use credit, and I'm never sure whether Rick has changed the zip code with the company or not. Hmmm. Do I put in the OLD zip code? If that doesn't work, do I even KNOW the new one? Maybe I'll just use debit....
So fast forward to the job search. Job applications are a challenge...a memory game. It is like my own personal mental exercise....I don't need that Luminosity.com website; I can just try to complete a job application on the spot. Name? Got it. Current address? Ummmmm...yeah yeah, I remember. Phone number? Don't have one...use cell. Social Security number? Ummmm...wait...I know this one....412...no no that's his. (If you are unaware of this little fun military fact, everything we do on post pretty much requires us to use the SS# on the military member...they NEVER want to know mine. At one point after I had been a stay-at-home mom for a long time, I couldn't even REMEMBER my own SS#). Oh yeah. Got it. Criminal convictions? No. But then....
Please list your home addresses for the last 5 years. (sometimes it is the last TEN years!). Uh-oh.
In the last five years, I have lived in three different homes in three different states.
In the last TEN years, I have lived in SIX different homes in FIVE different states.
Home address? Nope. And phone number? GET OUT. YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS RIGHT NOW.
You know those discount cards you get at stores that go on your keychain? Like your Kroger card or your Harris Teeter card? Yeah, I have tons of those, but I don't always carry that keychain. No problem, you say. They can look it up by your phone number. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. Yep, hey sure can. If you can remember what that number is...or where you even LIVED when you got that card. I finally wised up and started using my cell number since I am not going to ever change that. The clerks in the stores really look at you funny when you say, "Um, well, try THIS number and see what happens..." I even just gave up and started using my mom's Nashville phone number at Harris Teeter. It's just easier...that's my childhood phone number. :)
The application process isn't really SUPPOSED to be an intelligence test, right?
I know that all my military wife friends will agree with me when I tell you that we remember the past in relation to where we were living at the time. That time I went to see Leigh when she lived in England? Oh that was while we lived in TX before Rick was deployed to Iraq. Remember when Sarah was in kindergarten? Yeah, that was the year we lived in Charlottesville, VA. That time Shelly and I made a scene in the store when she spilled the varnish? Oh yeah. I remember. That's when we lived in Germany.
Strangely enough, Army life does seem to get compartmentalized like that. And that isn't a bad thing...it actually helps me remember some things. My life doesn't "all run together." But it is really odd to see it all mapped out on a job application. So clinical. I wish there was a way to let those employers know how much each of those places mean to me. :)
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